#leelahalcorn’s suicide note & other blog posts (USA)

The GLBT Community is currently waging a campaign of harassment against the parents of a child who committed suicide. In support of this campaign, the GLBT Community is pointing the a suicide note posted on the victim’s Tumblr blog, which asserts that the parents are to blame for the suicide. Because Leelah Alcorn is now dead, the suicide note is accepted as gospel truth.

There is no basis for accepting the suicide note as “truth.” The fact that a person commits suicide does not make them more credible or convert their words into gospel to be cherished by adoring throngs. This canonization of a person who commits suicide is precisely why responsible news outlets do not publish suicide notes. However, if we are going to take as truth and not question anything a person who commits suicide writes, here are some other things Alcorn wrote:

This post reflects the deep misogyny we have seen develop in the transgender community over the last several years.

This is an uncritical post at best, racist at worst.

This is anti-otherkin.

All of this to say, the truth of any given situation is more complex than made out on social media. It is simplistic to assume you have a complete picture of a person based on a suicide note written in the throes of depression.

8 thoughts on “#leelahalcorn’s suicide note & other blog posts (USA)”

her suicide has been taken up by social media to raise awareness for trans people and the difficulties they face (more specifically, from religious and/or transphobic people). by posting screenshots of posts on her tumblr, you are trying to take away attention from and discredit her suicide. i do not agree with some of her opinions on other subjects as expressed by her posts, but does the fact that she wrote something that discriminated against another group of people erase the fact that she was pushed to kill herself by her parents and the society they existed in? that’s what’s written in her suicide note. and as for you saying that ‘there is no basis for accepting the suicide note as “truth”‘, the note was written by leelah alcorn to express her own feelings and thoughts… what is the “truth” about her suicide?? are you able to say?? her version of what she went through in her life is the truth told from her point of view, and right now it’s the only point of view that is relevant. she killed herself because of her family’s inability to accept her for who she was, and you don’t seem to realize what she was trying to accomplish and what can be accomplished with the widespread knowledge of both her suicide note and her suicide. this could lead to greater acceptance for trans people from all walks of life, which would undoubtedly result in less tragic incidents like this happening.
this is a pretty asshole-like reaction to what happened. she killed herself and wants her death to mean something and to change the lives of trans people, and you seem to be attempting to detract from the so-called authenticity of her note – for what purpose? to convince people that her suicide note is not reliable information, so we should just think that she killed herself for no reason?? do you want us to believe that she lived in a happy, loving family???

her parents are grieving over joshua alcorn, not leelah. they are grieving over who their “son” was, instead of who she was or who she could’ve been.
leelah alcorn has not been put on a pedestal. we are trying to use the tragedy of her suicide to show how damaging peoples’ mindsets can be, and maybe therefore make the world a better place.
“The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.”
^she wanted her death to mean something, and i don’t see how you can look past that. we are not using the personality or mindset (in other words, displayed in your images) of leelah to protest against transphobia – we are using the fact that transphobia made her kill herself.